Elementary Science Methods II

  This week in lab we gave presentations. Below are my notes from those presentations: Lifecycles of stars  Preconceptions  Every star has the same life cycle  Stars burn like fire The sun is not a star Facts  Stars are a giant ball of gas  Stars are different colors (depending on the temperature) There are more stars than grains of sands  Important People Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Nasa’s Kepler Mission; Steve Kawlaer (ISU professor)  Quiz  The explosion of a star is called what? Supernova  Galaxies Preconceptions  Milky Way is the only galaxy  All galaxies are the same size and shape  Current  Galaxies are collections of billions of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity in space  Facts  The milky way; milky band across the sky and is home to 100-400 billion stars Andromeda Galaxy is the closest galaxy to us  Not all galaxies are the same size Quiz  Which best describes a galaxy? A collection...

 This week in lab, we began by discussing Miconceptions Die Hard . My group specifically focused on connecting this article to the video, Private Universe. However, this class discussion reinforced the importance of uncovering and correcting students' preconceptions to help them develop a true understanding of scientific concepts. We then moved into creating our own solar system to scale. My group and I did calculations to find the size of each planet and the distance between them for our model. We then used a meter stick to place our planets in their correct location throughout the Lindquist Center, which I have included photos of. This activity was helpful to visualize the true, large size of planets and the distance between them. We then ended lab by analyzing and discussing our School of the Wild lesson plans within our groups.  How does studying the solar system's scale help us connect our place in the universe back to its origins? Introduction If the moon is on the Easte...